An artist creates pictures using colored salt in Buffalo, New York. The artist creates upside down, pouring colored salt to create a picture of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery building. He then tips the picture up and the salt pours to the ground, destroying the picture. He then creates a picture of the Universal Newsreel Globe, and puts the letters ' Universal Newsreel with Graham Mcnamee' on the globe. This, too, is destroyed when it is lifted by the artist.

On November 2, 1940, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and party visit P-39 aircraft production line at the Bell Aircraft Company factory, 2050 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, and P-40 production lines at the Curtiss Aeroplane factory, 2303 Kenmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Workers in the Bell plant pose around and inside fuselages taking shape along a production line for Bell P-39 Airacobra airplanes. In the Curtiss plant, view from rear, of Secret Service agent in coat and hat, standing on running board of an open Packard motor car carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his party as they drive slowly along an aisle in the factory, showing P-40 aircraft in various stages of completion. The President is barely visible in the back seat. (This is a 1939 Packard twelve, model 1708, special parade car, built for the President's use.) View from ahead of the President's car, as it proceeds along the Curtiss P-40 production line. (The President, in coat and hat, sits in the right rear seat.) As they progress along the production line, the aircraft seen are increasingly more complete. At the Bell plant, the motorocade passes a fully assembled P-39 on display. The President holds a desk model of the plane. The American flag and Presidential flag are displayed on the front of the car. The president is now seen without his hat. The car moves into a section of one of the factories that fabricates wing assemblies and other smaller parts. Closeup front view of the President and party as the car begins to exit the Bell factory on Elmwood Avenue. The building has "Bell Aircraft Corp." written on it. Employees are lined up outside the plant and applaud the President. [Note: There is a possibility that some scenes may be from other Buffalo-area aircraft factories that started production in 1942, including the Bell Plant in Wheatfield, NY (Niagara Falls) and the Curtiss Plant #2 at the Buffalo Airport.]

Opening scene shows the White House in Washington, DC. Scene shifts to President Roosevelt seated, ready to address the Nation by radio. View of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. FDR with his entire family posing, in front of the family home "Springwood" at Hyde Park, New York. Roosevelt, when Governor of New York, seen in a sail boat, in 1929. FDR in his car at his Institute for Rehabilitation in Warm Springs, Georgia. He is speaking with a man associated with the Institute, who then greets several polio victims in wheel chairs there. Crowds celebrating Roosevelt's election, in Times Square, Manhattan, New York City, in 1932. Roosevelt, at the Democratic Headquarters at the Biltmore Hotel on November 8, 1932. He is standing, supported by his son James, as he remarks: "It looks my friends like a real landslide this time." Aerial view of the U.S. Capitol. FDR taking the oath of office on March 4, 1933. A man looking at stock market ticker tape. A group of people raising a National Recovery Administration member flag. Glimpse of "Springwood" and then view of President Roosevelt sitting next to his mother, Sara Ann Delano Roosevelt. Next, as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt sit in the garden, their grandchildren, Anna Eleanor Dall ("Sistie") and Curtis Roosevelt Dall ("Buzzie") come past riding horses, with granddaughter Sara, behind them on a pony. FDR pets the pony and talks with Sara. FDR being nominated for a second term as President, in the 1936 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. President Roosevelt, riding in an inaugural motorcade as he begins an unprecedented 4th term as President in 1941. Glimpse of President and Mrs. Roosevelt in an open car. West point cadets marching in the inaugural parade. Military trucks towing artillery pieces in the parade. President Roosevelt speaking at the dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association at the Willard hotel in Washington, DC, March 15, 1941. He extols the virtues of Winston Churchill and the British people. And he promises that America will supply them with the war materiel they need (This is known as the Lend Lease Speech.)

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson attend American Federation Labor conference in Buffalo, New York. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall attend an American Federation of Labor conference in Buffalo, N.Y. (1917). President Samuel Gompers and Secretary Frank Morrison of the American Federation of Labor meet. The Labor Day parade in Buffalo. Troops and motorcars participate in the parade. Views of President Samuel Gompers and Secretary Frank Morrison. Hugh Frayne, General organizer of the American Federation of Labor, joins the group. They all take out their hats.

Buffalo Fire Department in action in Buffalo, New York. Firemen loaded onto large horse-drawn wagons accompanied by several pieces of firefighting apparatus, including two smoking steam pump engines. (Filmed by Edison Company, June, 1897) Note: The 1902 date on the Library of Congress leading title is in error.

The 1932 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his daughter Anna Roosevelt and granddaughter Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Dall (sometimes known as Sistie) outside a building circa 1930. Roosevelt holds a cane while leaning against a column and plays with his grandson using the cane. People gather in the convention hall for the 1932 Democratic National Convention. Roosevelt addresses them, speaking of the need to "break foolish traditions" and "to win in this crusade to restore America to its own people." The people applaud.